Buster Keaton's second released independent short, again starring the spirited Sybil Seely who also appears in One Week, The Scarecrow, and The Boat.

A GAME OF GOLF
Buster and Sybil are sharing a game of golf, "the game that brings out the beast in men". Sybil is superior. Buster bungles everything. He has to retrieve his ball from inside a fish and from a runaway dog who has an impressive collection of golf balls.

PRISONER
A fugitive from prison stumbles upon Buster who has been knocked unconscious by his own golf ball. The fugitive instantly switches clothes with Buster who blithely continues his game in a striped prisoner's suit.

CHASE
In a wild chase sequence, a platoon of prison wardens act mechanically in unison like the Keystone Kops. There are affinities with Charles Chaplin's The Adventurer in this sequence. Later Keaton developed aspects of this concept in Cops. The approach has a touch of surrealism.

DEATH ROW
Like later in Cops, Keaton mistakenly lands behind bars. His prisoner number 13 spells imminent death by hanging. In the prison gym Sybil discovers a bungee cord and replaces the hanging rope with it. The hanging, eagerly anticipated by fellow prisoners, turns into a clownish circus number. The audience is disappointed and resentful. Gallows humours indeed.

RIOT
The prisoner's sentence involves hard labour. Breaking stones with a sledgehammer Buster accidentally knocks a warden unconscious and switches clothes with him. Simultaneously there is a riot. The prisoners knock all the wardens, until Buster is the last man standing wearing a warden's uniform and facing the giant riot leader. The scene has affinities with Eric Campbell scenes in Chaplin's films such as Easy Street.

PUNCHBAG
Alone against all, Buster ties a punchbag to the bungee cord and knocks out all prisoners. When the riot leader has pierced the punchbag with his bayonet Buster replaces it with an iron ball. The prison riot sequence with gunfire, mass beatings and deaths is the most violent I remember having seen in the Buster Keaton oeuvre.

The prison story is a dream sequence in which Sybil is the prison warden's daughter. Buster wakes up in her arms.

Another amazing and alarming Buster Keaton short with affinities with the world of Franz Kafka. In his early shorts Keaton wore long pointed shoes like Little Tich had done 20 years earlier and like Leningrad Cowboys would do in the 1980s. The ill fitting shoes hamper Keaton's game of golf and are also a Chaplinesque detail.

The visual world is exceptionally stark and reduced for a Keaton film, especially in contrast with his bucolic and historical stories. The prison milieu, the scaffold and the striped clothes are conveyed in startlingly graphic images. One can compare them with the 1930s prison movies of Warner Bros.

An integral and consistent restoration from challenging sources. A wonderful Robert Israel score.

VALTAKUNNAT
REALMS
Patrik Söderlund | Finland 2018 | Experimental, Fiction | 21 min
TFF: "A short film about geological epochs, kingdoms of life and mass extinctions, Realms voyages through deep time from the primeval ocean to the post-human future." "Lyhytelokuva geologisista maailmankausista, biologisista pääryhmistä ja joukkosukupuutoista. Realms matkaa halki ajan alkumerestä ihmiskunnan jälkeiseen tulevaisuuteen." (TFF)
AA: Sound and vision: sublime about our time on Earth, the existence before and after humanity. Another film based on the aesthetics of the ruin. Here the ruin is not a special instance but the imminent condition of existence. Grandeur of the scope frame. Powerful soundscape.

Taksvärkkipäivä / Career Day

TAKSVÄRKKIPÄIVÄ
CAREER DAY
Mika Tervonen | Finland 2018 | Fiction | 9 min
TFF: "A hitman brings his daughter to work for a career day. Going through a conflict makes them see each other in a different light." "Palkkamurhaaja ottaa tyttärensä mukaan töihin suorittamaan taksvärkkiä. Konfliktitilanne saa heidät näkemään toisensa uudessa valossa." (TFF)
AA: Black comedy about a hitman whose daughter follows him on an Operation Day's Work. Sharp and well made.

Govadas

GOVADAS
Elina Oikari | Finland 2018 | Experimental, Fiction | 9 min
TFF: "Govadas explores the contradiction and harmony between humans and nature through Sámi poetry. The cyclical perception of time among the only indigenous people living in the European Union is presented in the work as unfolding forms and layers based on the archive material from the 1940’s and the super 8 mm film footage from 2010’s. Govadas creates a kinetic meditation on time, memory, landscape and the ruptures between them." "Govadas pohtii luonnon ja ihmisen välistä harmoniaa ja siihen liittyviä ristiriitoja. Euroopan Unionin ainoan alkuperäiskansan syklinen aikakäsitys esitetään uudelleen syntyvinä muotoina ja kerrostumina. Nils Aslak Valkeapään runot yhdistyvät arkistomateriaaliin 1940-luvulta ja 2010-luvulla kuvattuun super 8 mm -filmiin. Govadas muodostaa kineettisen meditaation ajasta, muistista, maisemasta ja niiden välisistä murtumista." (TFF)
AA: Based on the poems by Nils Aslak Valkeapää, a subjective found footage film based in the Sami people's experience of time and space.

VENETSIA
VENICE
Jenni Tuli | Finland 2018 | Fiction | 15 min
TFF: "A young girl Veera, 16 years old, has disappeared. Ara has been Veera´s closest friend. Ara has taken a grip on her life and is not anymore in drug-fuelled-vertigo. She has left her old life behind and Veera belongs to that old life. Ara still cares about Veera, but she is unable to help her. Ara´s new life is still too fragile and she is hanging by a thread. But what happened to Veera?" "Nuori, 16-vuotias Veera on kadonnut. Ara on ollut Veeran paras ystävä. Ara on kuitenkin ottanut elämänsä takaisin haltuunsa ja jättänyt huumehourut taakseen. Vanha elämä on saanut väistyä uuden tieltä ja Veera sen mukana. Ara välittää edelleen Veerasta, muttei pysty auttamaan tätä. Aran uusi elämä on vielä liian hauras ja sen ylläpitäminen vaatii paljon. Mutta mitä Veeralle on tapahtunut?" (TFF)
AA: Based on a true story, Venice is a youth workshop production made with young women in the situation of "when you don't have a home to go to". Strong, authentic, full of life, full of despair. In the presence of the people who made it.

IHOLLE
CLOSE TO ME
Joonas Rutanen | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 19 min
TFF: "Aila is a lonely young woman living in eastern suburbs of Helsinki. Aila has lost her cat. She ends up looking for the cat to a park behind a block of flats. There she meets Simo, a gangling young man of few words. Simo tells Aila that he has seen the cat and they continue the search together. It’s obvious that Simo doesn’t know how to be around women, but Aila and Simo are both lonely and looking for love. Eventually the day turns into a night and even before their relationship has properly started, Aila discovers unexpected and possessive side of Simo." "Aila on omalla tavallaan yksinäinen, betonielementtitalon nainen. Ailan kissa on kadonnut. Aila päätyy etsimään kissaa kerrostalolähiön puistoon, jossa kohtaa vähäsanaisen Simon. Simo kertoo nähneensä kissan ja lyöttäytyy Ailan matkaan. Simokin on omalla tavallaan yksinäinen, hontelomainen poika, joka ei tiedä mistä naisille puhua. Ailalla ja Simolla on kuitenkin yhteinen piirre, huutava tarve rakkaudelle. Kissan etsintä vaihtuu rakkaudenkaipuiseksi yöksi, jonka kuluessa Simosta paljastuu arvaamaton ja omistushaluinen puoli, jo ennen kuin yhteinen suhde on aivan ehtinyt alkaa." (TFF)
AA: The story of two young outsiders in winter. Aila has lost her cat. Simo has found it dead, tells her nothing, but helps her anyway, until a jealous and violent side emerges. Yet they continue meeting each other.

KEULIMINEN
RIDE OF PASSAGE
Katri Myllyniemi, Vilja Autiokyrö | Finland 2019 | Documentary | 7 min
TFF: "In secret, on the outskirts of the city, hundreds of teenage boys gather and show off on their mopeds and motocross bikes. The summer night is filled with the noise and smoke of straining motors, all against a dark, silent backdrop of looming pines. All you need to belong is a two-wheeler of your own. The riders are just a step away from adulthood. They are living their last moments of freedom, the future already in sight. These secret moped meeting gatherings are popular and widespread throughout Finland, organised and spread through social media." "Sadat teini-ikäiset pojat mopoineen ja motocross-pyörineen kokoontuvat salaiseen paikkaan kaupungin laidalle. Kesäyön täyttää pyöristä lähtevä melu. Rataa kiertävien, savuttavien ajopelien takana kuuset seisovat ylväinä. Jos käytössäsi on kaksipyöräinen kulkuvälinen, muuta ei tarvita. Pojat ovat aivan aikuisuuden kynnyksellä ja elävät viimeisiä vapauden hetkiään, mutta tulevaisuus siintää jo heidän edessään." (TFF)
AA: A factual record of the outlandish rituals of round-the-clock motocross rides. Totally insane, and totally absorbing.

Eläinsilta U-3033 / Animal Bridge U-3033

ELÄINSILTA U-3033
ANIMAL BRIDGE U-3033
Milja Viita | Finland 2018 | Experimental, Documentary | 13 min
TFF: "Animal Bridge U-3033 is about the parallel realities of humans and wild animals. It’s filmed during a year on a bridge above motor highway. These bridges are architecturally engrossing structures, addressed only to the nature, allowing animals to cross the highway." "Eläinsilta U-3033 on kertomus ihmisten ja villieläinten rinnakkaistodellisuuksista. Elokuva on kuvattu moottoritien ylittävällä sillalla. Nämä rakennelmat on tarkoitettu eläinten käyttöön, jotta ne voivat kulkea teiden yli." (TFF)
AA: Shot with infrared surveillance cameras, a huge amount of footage was edited into a nocturnal vision of the parallel reality of animals crossing a custom-built bridge over the highway. A phantom world is full of life next to us while we are asleep.

Syötäväksi syntynyt / Born to Be Eaten.

SYÖTÄVÄKSI SYNTYNYT
BORN TO BE EATEN
Kati Laukkanen | Finland 2018 | Documentary | 11 min
TFF: "A symphonic portrait of the five week life of a broiler chicken." "Tällainen on tehotuotetun broilerin viiden viikon elämä." (TFF)
AA: We know the story, and everytime it is shocking to hear. Hundreds of thousands of chicken exist only in as industrial material to be processed as food. Every scene is an argument for vegetarianism.

Sakke

SAKKE
Anssi Kasitonni | Finland 2018 | Experimental, Fiction | 9 min
TFF: "Sakke is a Finnish snowboarder who is going to make a movie with his buddy. Sakke is also the world´s first radio controlled snowboarder." "Sakke on suomalainen lumilautailija, joka aikoo tehdä kaverinsa kanssa elokuvan. Sakke on myös maailman ensimmäinen radio-ohjattava lumilautailija." (TFF)
AA: A music video based on a radio controlled puppet. While Sakke may seem an animation, it is not: it is a live puppet movie! ♪ Anssi Kasitonni: "Luurankojengi". ♪ Anssi Kasitonni: "Laskettelubiisi".

AWARENESS
Arttu Nieminen | Finland 2019 | Experimental, Fiction | 4 min
TFF: "Neurocinematic dive into surreal prophecy, where awareness of mankind reaches to the heavens." "Neuroelokuva sukeltaa mentaaliseen tykkylumikudokseen, näkyyn missä ihmiskunnan tietoisuus kurottaa korkeuksiin." (TFF)
AA: Experimental music video: "Come Let Us" with lyrics from the Bible: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” The image is horizontally doubled: above we see the mirror image. Tykkylumi (heavy snow) is a central image.

Kaksi ruumista rannalla / Two Bodies on a Beach. Laura Birn.

KAKSI RUUMISTA RANNALLA
TWO BODIES ON A BEACH
Anna Paavilainen | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 20 min
TFF: "A WOMAN wakes up on a beach tied in a plastic press wearing only underwear and high heels. “Not again”, she sighs and decides to track down the enemy and strike back. She gets a companion from AN OLDER WOMAN, who has been pushed to the borders of society. During their journey through classical cinematic landscapes these nameless women from different generations struggle to connect and understand each other’s perspectives while their passion for men and male attention gets in away." "Nainen herää rannalta muoviin käärittynä puolialastomana korkokengissä. “Ei taas”, hän huokaa, ja päättää löytää syyllisen. Nainen saa houkuteltua mukaansa kostoretkelleen maailmanlaidalle sysätyn vanhemman naisen. Kulkiessaan läpi klassisten elokuvallisten maisemien nämä nimettömät naiset joutuvat kohtaamaan omat himonsa, sukupolvien ristiriidat ja idealisminsa haurauden." (TFF)
AA: A hallucinatory odyssey of two women lost in the world of chauvinistic entertainment clichés. Impressively shot in scope. ♪ Sirpaleprinsessa.

***

The show started and ended with parodies of conventional macho film fantasies, linked by the contribution of Anna Paavilainen, star of Helsinki Mansplaining Massacre and director of Two Bodies on a Beach.

This is the time for such spoofs, but as vehicles for women's cinema they are trapped by negation to macho genre clichés.

The male look and the female look: for us human beings the common ground is bigger than the territory that is different and individual differences are bigger than gender differences, not forgetting that there are more genders than two. Having said this I think that there are strengths that are more typical for women than men: intuition, sensitivity, emotional intelligence, a taste for beauty, language, discussion, communication, tenderness, and caring. I don't forget that Socrates in Symposium confessed having learned everything from Diotima, including the greatest lesson: the wisdom of love. And the insight that the road to wisdom is via dialogue.

Men have a talent in death, women have a talent in life. In these parodies women are lost in Death Valley, and genuinely feminine strengths are absent.

1,5 METRIÄ TILAA
1,5 METERS SPACE
Vilja Autiokyrö | Finland 2018 | Documentary | 17 min
TFF: "Sinikka has by chance made acquaintance with her downstairs neighbour Vilja and asked her for help. Things have taken over Sinikka’s home and there is only a small human-sized pathway left in the apartment. As a window renovation is approaching, Sinikka needs to clear 1,5 meters empty space. A short documentary of friendship and its meaning in giving and receiving help." "Sinikka on sattumalta tutustunut alakerran naapuriinsa Viljaan, ja nyt hän pyytää tältä apua. Sinikan koti on tavaroiden valtaama, ja asunnon läpi kulkee vain kapea polku. Pian olisi tiedossa ikkunaremontti, joten Sinikan on raivattava puolitoista metriä tyhjää tilaa ikkunan eteen. Lyhyt dokumentti ystävyydestä ja sen merkityksestä avun antamisessa ja vastaanottamisessa." (TFF)
AA: Home cleaning as extreme sport: Sinikka is almost vanishing into things that are accumulating in her apartment. Her young neighbour, the film director Vilja Autiokyrö, manages to clear the 1,5 meters that are needed for the window repairs.

Maalitaulu / Target. Smartphones as weapons in social media.

MAALITAULU
TARGET
Antti Heikki Pesonen | Finland 2019 | Fiction | 8 min
TFF: "One man accuses another of inappropriate behavior and threatens to shame him on social media." "Mies syyttää toista asiattomasta käytöksestä ja uhkaa nolata hänet sosiaalisessa mediassa." (TFF)
AA: Smartphone as a weapon with which you can destroy another person in an instant. Due to a misunderstanding a man is branded as a pedophile. A mislabelled smartphone photo is ready to be sent online.

TOISINAJATTELIJA
THE DISSIDENT
Georg Grotenfelt | Finland 2018 | Documentary | 26 min
TFF: "Pentti Linkola is a well known philosopher, ornithologist and writer. All his life he has been concerned with the future of mankind and nature. He predicted the ecocatastrophe already in the 1960ies. This film shows his daily life living on his own in the middle of the forest." "Pentti Linkola on tunnettu filosofi, lintutieteilijä ja kirjailija. Läpi elämänsä hän on ollut huolissaan ihmiskunnan ja luonnon tulevaisuudesta. Linkola ennusti meneillään olevan ekologisen katastrofin jo 1960-luvulla. Tämä elokuva on kuvaus hänen arjestaan yksin metsän keskellä." (TFF)
AA: Much has been written about Pentti Linkola, Finland's most prominent eco-warner since the 1960s. This portrait documentary does not focus on him as a doomsday prophet but as a nature lover. Shot during three autumns by Georg Grotenfelt, a friend of Linkola's since the 1970s. A beautiful account of the infinite wonders of nature as experienced by Linkola. ♪ Beethoven: späte Streichquartette. Vivaldi: Le quattro stagioni.

TFF: "In 1980, Finland’s most famous hypnotist Olavi Hakasalo, a.k.a Olliver Hawk, was put on trial accused of fraud. His mission in life had been to spread the gospel of the power of suggestion, and he was willing to risk everything to become a player of political influence on the big stage. But in the corridors of power, with a nation’s destiny at stake, an eccentric showman sitting on too many secrets is considered a liability.""Vuonna 1980 Suomen kuuluisin hypnotisoija Olavi Hakasalo eli Olliver Hawk joutui oikeuden eteen petoksesta syytettynä. Hänen elämäntehtävänään oli ollut levittää suggestion voiman sanomaa, ja hän oli valmis panemaan peliin kaikkensa noustakseen politiikan huippunimien joukkoon. Mutta kun panoksena on kansakunnan kohtalo, on omaperäinen viihdyttäjä, joka tietää liikaa, lähinnä uhkatekijä." (TFF)

AA: Classified as a documentary, The Hypnotist is a portrait of a genuinely fascinating character, Olavi Hakasalo (1930–1988).

I like this film very much, but it would have been even better if it would have been more strictly focused on the documentary and the factual.

Now key scenes and voices are enactments which certainly makes the movie more smooth and entertaining but documentary credentials are fundamentally weakened.

Olavi Hakasalo was undoubtedly an exceptionally talented hypnotist. He was also a colourful showman whose exploits were covered in magazines such as Hymy, Jallu and Ratto with little regard to credibility and a high commitment in sex and sensation.

Arthur Franck has created an engaging film which veers quite a bit in Hymy – Jallu – Ratto territory.

My associations run into famous instances of hypnosis in the cinema, including Le Mystère de Roches de Kador, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, Dr. Mabuse der Spieler, and The Manchurian Candidate. But also clairvoyants like in Schicksal aus zweiter Hand and Hanussen. And magicians including Orson Welles in F for Fake.

Hypnosis in politics is a major theme in The Hypnotist. There is a bizarre story of Urho Kekkonen (1900–1986, President of Finland over 25 years, the longest reigning head of state in a democratic country) and his famous populist adversary Veikko Vennamo (1913–1997). Allegedly Kekkonen consulted Olavi Hakasalo to undermine Vennamo, and Vennamo caught wind of this. The case is not very solidly stated in the movie.

Certainly hypnotic aspects have been evident in politics, alarmingly so in the case of Adolf Hitler, and today in the presence of Donald Trump. A force of persuasion that defies reason and argumentation.

The Hypnotist is a fascinating film. During the film we get a step-by-step course of hypnosis. Hawk was a good teacher with a sense of humour and self-reflection. He made mistakes, acknowledged them, learned from them and never gave up. He died on stage in his last show.

In the concluding Q &A Arthur Franck stated that film is also hypnosis.

AA: Avaruusromua is an acclaimed radio program specializing in experimental and electronic music, edited by Jukka Mikkola since 1990. The music ranges from ambient to electronic, contemporary, experimental, underground, and avantgarde.

I would not call Avaruusromua the movie a documentary. It is an experimental film, a visual response to ten pieces of experimental music.

It is a contemporary interpretation of the quintessential Romantic theme of the ruin. The ruins here include buildings, cars, ships, service stations, and an abandoned landmark, the Lauttasaari watertower. Achievements of culture taken over or falling back to the state of nature.

In the framing narration Jukka Mikkola philosophizes about the nature of time and the time of the nature.

Extérieur nuit: everything takes place at night. The framing footage is in extreme low angle, showing tree tops at night.

The ruins themselves are also recorded in darkness, illuminated by stroboscopic lights. Sometimes the flickering lights obey the rhythm of the music track.

An experience of transcendental meditation. A ghost story of abandoned constructions.

TFF: "A documentary movie about passion, do-it-yourself spirit, anxiety of small town teenagers and life changes brought on by adulthood. The story is told through a Finnish punk rock record label, Combat Rock Industry, which became one of the most significant ones operating in the 00’s.""Dokumenttielokuva intohimosta, omaehtoisesta tekemisestä, pikkukaupungin ahdistavuudesta, punk-ideologiasta ja aikuisuuden tuomista elämänmuutoksista. Tarina kerrotaan 2000-luvun merkittävimmän suomalaisen punk-levy-yhtiön Combat Rock Industryn kautta." (TFF)

AA: A priceless documentary of a Finnish 2000s neo-punk phenomenon. Combat Rock Industry was a record label representing a powerful array of new punk bands. Many records were published, and the bands toured extensively all around Finland and Europe. The film is rich with interviews and tour performances. It is a remarkable oral history project about a team spirit. Young people were launched at an early stage to international careers, to see the world. A consistent visual design was created by Ville Angervuori both for the record label and the movie at hand.

Fifteen years ago, in 2004, the record label and the record shop hit the brick wall as sales crashed all over the world due to internet access. Jani Koskinen struggled with Combat Rock Shop until 2016 when he gave up but instantly found a young successor.

I like the energy, the spirit, and the jovial and affectionate approach of this refreshing rockumentary.

SUPER COMFORT
Kirsikka Saari | Finland 2018 | Fiction | 15 min
TFF: "A tragi-comedy about Taina (52) and the loneliness that can set in when the children are out of the house." "Lempeä tragikomedia viisikymppisestä Tainasta ja yksinäisyydestä, joka voi asettua taloksi, kun lapset ovat muuttaneet kotona." (TFF)
AA: Generation gap is as deep as can get as the son comes to visit with his Goth girlfriend. Hitting all the wrong notes. There is no love lost. A chilling family story.

SODAN SILMÄT 1918
THE EYES OF A WAR 1918
Jouko Aaltonen, Seppo Rustanius | Finland 2018 | Documentary | 22 min
TFF: "The Finnish civil war in 1918 was also a children’s war, with child soldiers on both sides. Children saw and experienced everything, fought in battles, were wounded and also executed. But children also played on the ruins of the war and believed in their future. The Eyes of a War is based on authentic photographs, and they speak for themselves. Each child, White and Red alike, is a victim of war." "Vuoden 1918 sisällissota oli myös lasten sota, sillä lapsisotilaita värvättiin molemmille puolille. Lapset näkivät ja kokivat kaiken, taistelivat aikuisten rinnalla, haavoittuivat ja joutuivat teloitetuiksi. Mutta lapset myös leikkivät sodan jälkeensä jättämissä raunioissa ja uskoivat tulevaisuuteen. Sodan silmät 1918 perustuu aitoihin valokuviin, jotka eivät selityksiä kaipaa. Jokainen kuvien lapsi, olipa hän valkoinen tai punainen, oli sodan uhri." (TFF)
AA: Childhood is a privileged theme in the cinema as demonstrated by Mark Cousins in A Story of Children and Film. We think of Iran and Africa when we speak of child soldiers. But a hundred years ago we had child soldiers in Finland in our horrible civil war of 1918. There is a lot of photographic records of them, and Jouko Aaltonen and Seppo Rustanius have created a moving photo-montage of them covering the child's gaze, the child as a soldier, maimed corpses, humiliated prisoners, defiant eyes, faces turned serious too early, grieving children at graves, orphans, and schoolchildren after the war. In the end titles the photographers are credited, and they are among the greatest talents of the age. The address of the photographs is enhanced when they are projected on a cinema screen. The close-ups turn more fascinating. The records of concentration camps, parades and mass graves gain in epic stature. The visual quality is fine. ♪ Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen.

Kaivos / The Mine

KAIVOS
THE MINE
D: Tommi Kainulainen | Finland 2018 | Experimental, Documentary | 7 min
TFF: "A group a musicians are lured to gather deep down in an underground mine connected through the sounds of Finnish folk music led by the Notka accordionist and composer Anne-Mari Kivimäki." "Ryhmä muusikoita mainaavat suomalaisen kansanmusiikin säveliä maan uumenista säveltäjä Anne-Mari Kivimäen houkuttamana." (TFF)
AA: A music video: the music emerges from the depths of the underground. Based on the crescendo principle: the music and the orchestra keep growing. ♪ "Kaivos" / "The Mine", Anne-Mari Kivimäki's "hypnotic etno music from Finland" played on her Notka accordeon, also published on YouTube.

STAR SHAPED SCAR
Vuokko Kunttu, Virva Kunttu | Finland 2018 | Documentary | 13 min
TFF: "Star shaped scar is a short documentary about Jasmin Britney Koskiranta, a 26-year-old young woman from Finland. Jasmin does not work and she rarely leaves her apartment. Jasmin has a passion for clothes, make-up and especially for expensive shoes. She has several pairs of designer shoes that cost about 5000 euros a pair. These shoes have very high heels and are almost impossible to walk in. For Jasmin that makes no difference because she never walks in them." "Jasmin Britney pitää prinsessamekoista, meikeistä ja kaikista ihanista ja kiiltävistä tavaroista. Hänen suurin intohimonsa ovat kalliit Christian Louboutine kengät. Näillä kengillä on niin korkea korko, että niillä on mahdoton kävellä." (TFF)
AA: Jasmin has become a living doll whose sole purpose in life is her appearance. In the finale we learn the full story. In her childhood she was hit by a car on a zebra crossing / crosswalk, and her spinal cord was severed. Nurses take care of her uninterruptedly in three shifts. The viewer figures of this film are high at the Yle Areena site.

Mummola / Family Time

MUMMOLA
FAMILY TIME
Tia Kouvo | Finland, Sweden 2018 | Fiction | 23 min
TFF: "A Finnish family gathers to spend a weekend together at grandparents’. When the night goes on, we realize that this is how things always go. By looking at recognizable patterns, the film is a humoristic and thought-provoking study in family dynamics and structures." "Suomalainen perhe kokoontuu mummolaan viettämään viikonloppua yhdessä. Illan edetessä käy ilmeiseksi, että näinhän asiat aina menevät. Elokuva tarkastelee yleistä tapaamme toimia ja pohtii humoristisella ja ajatuksia herättävällä tavalla perheiden sisäisiä rakenteita ja dynamiikkaa." (TFF)
AA: Another desolate account of the generation gap as a family visits Granny. The discomfort is epic in all details. A study in the awkward.

TFF: "The Molenbeek district of Brussels. In media seen as jihadi capital but home sweet home to the 6 year-old boys Aatos and Amine. Aatos wants a god of his own, as Amine already has Allah but the question is complicated by his friend Flo’s belief that people who believe in God have gone crazy. The children’s play is interrupted as terrorist bombs explode in a metro station nearby."

AA: With astonishing intimacy Reetta Huhtanen observes the plays and dialogues of 6-year old boys. The mother tongue of Aatos is Finnish, for Amine it is Arabic, and they communicate in French. They discuss religious regulations such as eating pork. They discuss the existence of God. For Muslims Jesus is a prophet but not a son of God. Aatos is also fascinated by the Gods of the Antiquity, and he even dresses as Hermes, complete with the shoes of Hermes. He knows that Hermes transports the dead to another place. The mystery of death intrigues him, and he buries a dead bird. Aatos and Amine also dress as mummies with the help of toilet paper and masking tape. Profound dimensions of fairy-tales are covered.

It all happens in Molenbeek in Brussels, labelled as a hotbed of terrorism. Aatos and Amine observe the terrorism alerts, the policemen, the memorial candles, the traffic stops. They cannot make sense of the explosion, they just laugh at the loud noise. Demonstrations are arranged contre le terrorisme. Muslims distance themselves explicitly from terrorism.

In the finale Aatos's family is moving and Aatos cries because he cannot play with Amine anymore.

The visual quality is usually good but variable at times. The soundscape is bright, fresh and lofty.

AA: Three years before Nanook of the North, the archaeologist Dr. Sakari Pälsi, an expert of the stone age, made a wonderful ethnographic film called Arktisia matkakuvia / Travelling in the Arctic (FI 1917–1919). The film has been preserved by The Finnish Film Archive / National Audiovisual Institute. This year we are celebrating the centenary of this milestone of the genre.

For a long time already motion picture cameras had belonged to the standard equipment of scientific expeditions, and there was nothing unusual in Pälsi's decision to make a film. Pälsi's distinction was in his approach. He distanced himself from the already popular and superficial genre of the travelogue. Pälsi's focus was not in exotic attractions. Instead, he was seeking a genuine connection with the people he studied and was impressed with the Chukchi and Eskimo way of life.

The Chukchi are an indigenous people living in Northeast Siberia along the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea. Kira Jääskeläinen has already made a documentary film on Chukotka called Tagikaks (2012). In Northern Travelogues she returns to the Bering Strait and stages a time odyssey for the people she meets, arranging several screenings of Pälsi's film. We even visit a children's screening of Travelling in the Arctic. The past comes alive in the present.

A key image is a statue given to Pälsi by his friends, The Crying Chukchi. A stark and eloquent symbol of the fate of the Chukchi people, the closest relatives of the First Americans.

The Fall of the Wall in 1989–1991 took place also in the Bering Sea. In Uelen, Kira Jääskeläinen explores the saga of Teneskin, King of Uelen, who lived seven generations ago. His ancestors are also spread widely all over California, and relatives are now able to meet each other again after the Fall of the Ice Wall. A special word for these meetings, pagantikuk, means "crossing the strait".

There is a focus on art in Kira Jääskeläinen's meta-documentary. A wooden amulet carved in archaic fashion is the family protector. The Chukchi are sophisticated artists carving and painting objects from walrus teeth and whale bones. We visit a center of walrus
bone art. Another current of Chukchi art is the extremely reduced and
stark approach seen in The Crying Chukchi and the wooden family amulet.

During the Soviet era even Communist characters appeared in art objects fashioned in the traditional way. The Soviet era was calamitous for the language and culture of indigenous peoples. Russian language became dominant, and Chukchis were reduced to a minority in their own land. In three ways Soviet era was beneficial: in general culture, medicine and education. Life expectancy grew, and infant mortality sank.

Northern Travelogues is a beautiful and profound documentary exploration about cultural memory and identity. It is a time bridge over a century of epochal change in the land of an ancient people.

TFF: "The Blackouts is an essay that tells the story of a family moving from Finland to Poland in search of their roots. Living in Warsaw, they face the hustle and bustle of a city scorched by its tragic past. In this documentary, we see their broken memories. A child losing her culture since moving to another country. A family with lost Jewish traditions between generations. A city demolished in Second World War. They all miss something. There is a hole in their memory.""The Blackouts kertoo tarinan perheestä, joka muuttaa Suomesta Puolaan etsimään juuriaan. Varsovaan kotiutuva perhe kohtaa traagisen menneisyytensä kalvaman suurkaupungin. Dokumentti kuvailee perheenjäsenten rikkonaisia muistoja. Lapsi joutuu eroon omasta kulttuuristaan muuttaessaan toiseen maahan. Sukupolvi, joka on menettänyt juutalaiset perinteensä. Toisen maailmansodan tuhoama kaupunki. Kaikki kaipaavat jotakin, sillä muistoissa on aukko." (TFF)

AA: A long time in the making, Blackouts is a personal documentary quest about a Finnish family in search of its Jewish roots in contemporary Poland.

Blackouts is a post-assimilation tale. The Jewish tradition has been severed during previous generations, yet it remains meaningful today and is being passed for the next generation. Old people remember how everything was destroyed. We visit a Jewish graveyard and a Jewish kindergarten. Tales from the Torah are being told to the daughter of the family. Hanukkah candles are lit as reminders from the festival of light.

Oliwia was born in Warsaw, moved to Finland as a child and is now reactivating her Polish nationality. Her childhood memories are from Warsaw, such as a piece of glass buried in the ground, covering a flower. In Poland Oliwia still feels she is the little girl who never went away.

Jerem's Jewish ancestors fleed persecutions in Poland in the 1920s. For seven months they strayed in Baltic forests before arriving in Finland.

A group of Israeli schoolchildren visit Warsaw and the memorial of the Warsaw Ghetto Wall to understand why the state of Israel had to be established.

The wall between us is silence. The piece of glass keeps covering the secret of the flower.

A moving and intimate film essay about the search for Jewish family identity in the post-assimilation era.

TFF: "The mother kidnaps the child from Finland to Iraq and prevents all communication between the father and son. Thus begins the father’s endless fight to bring the boy back to Finland using all means possible. How is the father able to bear the separation from his son as all attempts to get him back seem futile. What measures are the parents prepared to take as the divorce becomes a wretched game concerning the child’s whereabouts? And what, in the end, is the child’s best interest? Waiting for Hezhwan is a documentary film that feels like a thriller – up to a surprising end. It is also an intimate psychological study about one man’s family tragedy. Such tragedies become more common as globalisation makes marriages, relationships – and divorces – more international.""Äiti kaappaa lapsen mukaansa Suomesta Irakiin ja estää lapsen isää ottamasta yhteyttä poikaansa. Alkaa isän loputon taistelu pojan saamiseksi takaisin Suomeen, ja siinä taistelussa kaikki keinot ovat sallittuja. Miten isä pärjää joutuessaan olemaan erossa lapsestaan, kun kaikki yritykset saada poika takaisin tuntuvat valuvan hukkaan? Miten pitkälle vanhemmat ovat valmiita menemään, kun avioero muuttuu peliksi, jonka panoksena on lapsen asuinpaikka? Ja mikä loppujen lopuksi on lapsen edun mukaista?" (TFF)

AA: A Kurdish family drama in Finland. Hezha Sadek tries to get back his son Hezhwan taken to Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan, Irak by Hezha's wife, Hezhwan's mother Juja.

Hezha takes all the steps. He tries to reach Hezhwan, Juja, and her father via Skype and the telephone. He makes a report to the police, and an Interpol order is given. He visits Abducted Children Finland. He talks with his mother and his sister. He talks with his friend. He visits Irak where he is put to jail for several days. He records YouTube videos for his son to watch. He even mounts a tent in front of the House of Parliament in Helsinki to make a demonstration.

At around 60 minutes in this movie of 69 minutes there is a turning-point. Hezha travels to Orlando for several weeks to visit Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church Of Mother Earth. He now sees everything differently. His love for his son was his only love, and for it he sacrificed everything. He confesses that he was not a loving husband. "We were not compatible". "My starting-point was my own ego". "My world view has completely changed". "We live in an age of spirituality. I love everybody".

Hezha cancels all his demands to the police and to his wife Juja.

The turning-point is a big surprise, but I have to confess that the obsessive-compulsive behaviour of Hezha raised questions all along. We never had a chance to learn Juja's point of view.

AA: A hard hitting documentary portrait of the young Finnish gangstarap artist Mercedes Bentso, active in Finland and Sweden. A portrait of a fighter, abused since early childhood, abandoned by her father at age 4. Because of her Romani background, she is discriminated by the majorities. Because of her rapper identity, she is a stranger among the Romani. Her boyfriend is a convicted murderer serving a 14 year life sentence. It is a life of hardship with an unstable record producer but also a tale of overcoming all difficulties, not the least of which is rampant male chauvinism in hiphop circles.

Many songs are included, all written by Mercedes Bentso herself, coming to terms with the abuse and violence she has experienced, also her combat against narcotic addictions. She has something to say and she says it loud and clear.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
– Thomas Gray: "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1751). ["Elegia maakylän kirkkomaalla", fine Finnish translation by Yrjö Jylhä in Englantilaisen kirjallisuuden kultainen kirja, 1933].

In Finland Paths of Glory was immediately recognized as a masterpiece. It was voted as the best film of the year 1958, and it also received the Jussi Award (the Finnish equivalent of an Academy Award) for the best foreign film. An affectionate correspondence with Stanley Kubrick documents that the director was pleased with the acknowledgements. A special Finnish passion for Stanley Kubrick lasted to the end, until Eyes Wide Shut – and after.

Paths of Glory is still one of the great WWI films and one of the great war films in general. Its special distinction is in its focus on military command.

A standstill on the front is embarrassing for the headquarters, and something has to happen. General Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) orders General Mireau (George Macready) to act. Mireau gives orders to attack Ant Hill, an operation that is nothing but a futile and doomed collective suicide mission.

When the capture of Ant Hill fails, three arbitrarily picked soldiers are court-martialled, given a guilty verdict and executed. Colonel Dax is furious and defends his men to the end, but General Mireau is only interested in promotion, and General Broulard just wants to protect the public image of the military.

Paths of Glory is full of controlled rage in its account of the madness of military technocracy and the machiavellian manipulations in high command. Kubrick's look is cold and precise, yet there is a lot of passion brewing.

Finns could sympathize with the character of Colonel Dax who reminds us of Lt. Koskela in The Unknown Soldier. The soldiers are seen as individuals who try to maintain their dignity in circumstances that are beneath dignity.

Paths of Glory is a story of men without women but in the finale the soldiers are relaxing in a bar in which a German woman prisoner is ordered to perform. With tears in her eyes she sings the folk song "Der treue Husar". The humanity of the brutalized soldiers is restored at least for the time being.

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Freddie Redd Quartet: The Music from The Connection [1960] (Freddie Redd Six Classic Albums 2/6)

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Introducing Freddie Redd (Freddie Redd Six Classic Albums 1/6)

Jazz Record of the Week 28/2017

Kenny Dorham: Jazz Contrasts

Jazz Record of the Week 20/2017

Joe Henderson: Page One

Jazz Record of the Week 17/2017

Miroslav Vitouš: The Bass

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: All or Nothing at All (5 Original Albums 5/5)

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: Stay with Me (5 Original Albums 4/5)

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: Songs for Distingué Lovers (5 Original Albums 3/5)

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: Body and Soul (5 Original Albums 2/5)

Jazz Records of the Week 16/2017

Billie Holiday: Lady Sings the Blues (5 Original Albums Box Set 1/5)

Jazz Record of the Week 14/2017

The Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin: The Inner Mounting Flame

Jazz Record of the Week 13/2017

Eero Koivistoinen: For Children

Jazz Record of the Week 8/2017

John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman

Jazz Record of the Week 7/2017

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: In a Mellotone

Jazz Record of the Week 6/2017

Duke Ellington: Piano Reflections

Jazz Record of the Week 5/2017

Miles Davis: Bitches Brew

Jazz Record of the Week 4/2017

Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

Jazz Record of the Week 3/2017

Dollar Brand Quartet: Africa – Tears and Laughter

Jazz Record of the Week 52/2016

Albert Ayler: Goin' Home

Jazz Record of the Week 49/2016

Charles Lloyd: Forest Flower, live at Monterey

Jazz Record of the Week 48/2016

Sinikka Oksanen, Antero Stenberg, Radio Sessions 1959-1966

Jazz Record of the Week 47/2016

Django Reinhardt Vol. 6: 1940: Nuages

Jazz Record of the Week 43/2016

The Essence of Louis Armstrong (Phontastic, Sweden, 1987)

Jazz Record of the Week 42/2016

Tomasz Stańko: Balladyna

Jazz Record of the Week 39/2016

Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else

Jazz Record of the Week 38/2016

Tommy Flanagan Trio: Overseas

Jazz Record of the Week 37/2016

Miles Davis: Miles Smiles

Jazz Record of the Week 36/2016

Red Garland Trio: Groovy

Jazz Record of the Week 35/2016

John Coltrane: My Favorite Things

Jazz Record of the Week 34/2016

The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out

Jazz Record of the Week 33/2016

Christian Schwindt Quintet: For Friends and Relatives

Jazz Record of the Week 32/2016

Carola & Heikki Sarmanto Trio

Jazz Record of the Week 25/2016

Cecil Taylor: Silent Tongues

Jazz Record of the Week 24/2016

Sonny Rollins: A Night at the Village Vanguard (1957, 2 cd reissue 2016)

Jazz Record of the Week 23/2016

Charlie Mingus: Blues & Roots

Jazz Record of the Week 22/2016

Mal Waldron: Moods

Jazz Record of the Week 21/2016

Django Bates: Belovèd Bird

Jazz Record of the Week 20/2016

Jacques Loussier Trio: The Original Play Bach Vols. 1 & 2

Jazz Record of the Week 19/2016

Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges: Side by Side

Jazz Record of the Week 18/2016

Ray Charles: Genius+Soul=Jazz. Complete 1956-1960 Sessions with Quincy Jones (Genius+Soul=Jazz, The Genius of Ray Charles, The Genius Hits the Road, and from The Great Ray Charles and The Genius After Hours)